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Poisons are usually not used for their toxicity, but may be used for their other properties. The property of toxicity itself has limited applications: mainly for scheming pests and weeds, and for preserving building materials and food stuffs. Where possible, specific agents which are less noxious to humans have come to be preferred, but exceptions such as phosphine continue in use.

Throughout human history, premeditated application of poison has been used as a method of elimination, murder, suicide and execution. As a method of execution, poison has been ingested, as the ancient Athenians did, inhaled, as with carbon monoxide or hydrogen cyanide, or injected. Many languages describe lethal injection with their corresponding words for "poison shot". Poison was also employed in concentrate warfare. For example, the 14th century Chinese text of the Huo Long Jing written by Jiao Yu outlined the use of a poisonous gunpowder mixture to fill cast iron grenade bombs.

Poisonous materials are often used for their chemical or physical properties other than being poisonous. The most effective, easiest, safest, or cheapest option for use in a chemical production may be a poisonous material. Particularly in experimental laboratory syntheses a specific reactivity is used, despite the toxicity of the reagent. Chromic acid is an example of such a "simple to use" reagent. Many technical applications call for some specific physical properties; a toxic essence may possess these properties and therefore be superior. Reactivity, in particular, is important. Hydrogen fluoride (HF), for example, is poisonous and exceptionally corrosive. However, it has a high affinity for silicon, which is exploited by using HF to etch glass or to manufacture silicon semiconductor chips.